CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION
Football is played in accordance with a set of rules, known as the Laws of the Game. The
game is played using a single round ball (the football) and two teams of eleven players
each compete to get the ball into the other team's goal, thereby scoring a goal. The team
that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner; if both teams have scored
an equal number of goals, then the game is a draw. There are exceptions to this rule,
however; see Duration and tie-breaking methods below.

The primary rule is that the players (other than the goalkeepers) may not intentionally
touch the ball with their hands or arms during play (though they do use their hands during
a throw-in restart). Although players usually use their feet to move the ball around, they
may use any part of their bodies other than their hands or arms.
In typical game play, players attempt to propel the ball toward their opponents' goal
through individual control of the ball, such as by dribbling, passing the ball to a team-
mate, and by taking shots at the goal, which is guarded by the opposing goalkeeper.
Opposing players may try to regain control of the ball by intercepting a pass or through
tackling the opponent who controls the ball; however, physical contact between
opponents is limited. Football is generally a free-flowing game, with play stopping only
when the ball has left the field of play, or when play is stopped by the referee. After a
stoppage, play recommences with a specified restart.
At a professional level, most matches produce only a few goals. For example, during the
English 2005-06 season of the FA Premier League, an average of 2.48 goals per match
were scored.
The Laws of the Game do not specify any player positions other than goalkeeper, but a
number of player specialisations have evolved. Broadly, these include three main
categories: strikers, or forwards, whose main task is to score goals; defenders, who
specialise in preventing their opponents from scoring; and midfielders, who dispossess
the opposition and keep possession of the ball in order to pass it to the forwards; players
in these positions are referred to as outfield players, in order to discern them from the
single goalkeeper. These positions are further differentiated by which side of the field the
player spends most time in. For example, there are central defenders, and left and right
midfielders. The ten outfield players may be arranged in these positions in any
combination (for example, there may be four defenders, four midfielders, and two
forwards, or three defenders, three midfielders, and four forwards), and the number of
players in each position determines the style of the team's play; more forwards and fewer
defenders would create a more aggressive and offensive-minded game, while the reverse
would create a slower, more defensive style of play. While players may spend most of the
game in a specific position, there are few restrictions on player movement, and players
can switch positions at any time. The layout of the players on the pitch is called the team's
formation, and defining the team's formation and tactics is usually the prerogative of the
team's manager.
Games revolving around the kicking of a ball have been played in many countries
throughout history. According to FIFA, the "very earliest form of the game for which
there is scientific evidence was an exercise of precisely this skilful technique dating back
to the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. in China." In addition, the Roman games Harpastum
may be a distant ancestor of football. Various forms of football were played in medieval
Europe, though rules varied greatly by both period and location.
Whilst football has continued to be played in various forms throughout Britain, the
English public schools (fee-paying schools) are widely credited with certain key
achievements in the creation of modern football (association football and the rugby
football games - rugby league and rugby union football). The evidence suggests that
during the sixteenth century English public schools generally, and headmaster Richard
Mulcaster in particular, were instrumental in taking football away from its violent " mob"
form and turning it into an organized team sport that was beneficial to schoolboys.
Therefore, the game became institutionalised, regulated, and part of a larger, more central
tradition. Many early descriptions of football and references to it (e.g., poetry) were
recorded by people who had studied at these schools, showing they were familiar with the
game. Finally, in the 19th century, teachers and former students were the first to write
down formal rules of early modern football to enable matches to be played between
schools.

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The rules of football as they are codified today are effectively based on the mid-19th-
century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played at the public
schools of England. The first ever set of football rules were written at Eton College in
1815. The Cambridge Rules were a code of football rules, first drawn up at Cambridge
University in 1848, which have influenced the development of Association football (also
known simply as "football", or soccer) and subsequent codes.
The Cambridge Rules were written at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1848, at a meeting
attended by representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury
schools, but they were not universally adopted. During the 1850s, many clubs
unconnected to schools or universities were formed throughout the Englishspeaking
world to play various forms of football. Some came up with their own distinct codes of
rules, most notably the Sheffield Football Club (formed by former pupils from Harrow) in
1857, which led to formation of a Sheffield FA in 1867. In 1862, John Charles Thing of
Upping ham School also devised an influential set of rules.
These ongoing efforts contributed to the formation of The Football Association (The FA)
in 1863 which first met on the morning of 26 October 1863 at the Freemason's Tavern in
Great Queen Street, London. The only school to be represented on this occasion was
Charterhouse. The Freemason's Tavern was the setting for five more meetings between
October and December, which eventually produced the first comprehensive set of rules.
At the final meeting, the first FA treasurer, the representative from Blackheath, withdrew
his club from the FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting, the first
which allowed for the running with the ball in hand and the second, obstructing such a
run by hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins), tripping and holding. Other English
rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA but instead in 1871 formed the
Rugby Football Union. The eleven remaining clubs, under the charge of Ebenezer Cobb
Morley, went on to ratify the original thirteen laws of the game. The Sheffield FA played
by its own rules until the 1870s.
The laws of the game are currently determined by the International Football Association
Board (IFAB). The Board was formed in 1886 after a meeting in Manchester of The
Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of
Wales, and the Irish Football Association. The world's oldest football competition is the

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FA Cup, which was founded by C. W. Alcock and has been contested by English teams
since 1872. The first official international football match took place in 1872 between
Scotland and England in Glasgow, again at the instigation of C. W. Alcock. England is
home to the world's first football league, which was founded in 1888 by Aston Villa
director William McGregor. The original format contained 12 clubs from the Midlands
and the North of England. The Federation International de Football Association (FIFA),
the international football body, was formed in Paris in 1904 and declared that they would
adhere to Laws of the Game of the Football Association. The growing popularity of the
international game led to the admittance of FIFA representatives to the International
Football Association Board in 1913. The board currently consists of four representatives
from FIFA and one representative from each of the four British associations.
Today, football is played at a professional level all over the world, and millions of people
regularly go to football stadia to follow their favourite team, whilst billions more watch
the game on television. A very large number of people also play football at an amateur
level. According to a survey conducted by FIFA and published in the spring of 2001, over
240 million people regularly play football in more than 200 countries in every part of the
world. It is simple rules and minimal equipment requirements have no doubt aided its
spread and growth in popularity.
In many parts of the world football evokes great passions and plays an important role in
the life of individual fans, local communities, and even nations; it is therefore often
claimed to be the most popular sport in the world. ESPN has spread the claim that the
Côte d'Ivoire national football team helped secure a truce to the nation's civil war in 2005.
By contrast, however, football is widely considered to be the final proximate cause in the
Football War in June 1969 between El Salvador and Honduras. The sport also
exacerbated tensions at the beginning of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, when a Red Star
Belgrade-at- Dinamo Zagreb match devolved into rioting in March 1990.
Football is one of the most popular sports games of today. Given the popularity of
football, the interest in this kind of activity is present in children and their parents.
Football training in children is a complex process that is based on the adoption and
implementation of specific sets of movements and actions of the football game, and
therefore requires a special treatment of their training (Mrsic and Jerković, 2010).

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Success in football requires a large number of skills, qualities and knowledge, the most
important of which are the anthropological characteristics, specific skills and knowledge
of football players, and situational efficiency and results in the competition (Dujmovic,
Elsner and Fiorentini, 2000).The training of younger age groups should be focused on
motor and psychological development and motivation for physical activity rather than the
early expectation of sporting results in children (Jukic, 2016), because early achievements
can endanger emotional, physical or creative aspects of child development (Spock and
Parker, 1998) . In this research, we elaborated development of speed and agility of young
footballers. In a study conducted by Jozak, Segedi, Despot, Marceic, Sos and Ivanjko
(2010), the results showed that there are significant changes in 20m sprint tests and
agility at 4 x 8 meters, primarily due to improvement of running technique, range of
training, and development of coordination. Samija(2011) determines changes in
morphological characteristics, motor and functional abilities created under an influence of
specific speed and agility training (SAQ) for junior footballers, and results show that
there are statistically significant changes in the experimental group in all components,
while there are statistically significant changes in morphological components in the
control group, and on components for assessing agility, explosive strength the type of
sprint, and on the variable for assessing aerobic endurance, a very small decrease or
stagnation of the assessed abilities is found. Jukic (2016) explores the differences
between a selected and non-selected group of young footballers of the same age in motor
skills and abilities. According to the results, children in the selected football group and
open school do not differ in motor skills and abilities except in the beep test.
Power is defined as the combination of strength and speed. In any sport explosive
movement is critical for improving performance. In sports like tennis, soccer, basketball,
and football sprinting from one side of the court or field to another is an important part of
winning.
The first step of the quick sprint across the court might be the difference in reaching a
tennis ball to return it with minimal accuracy or even hit a cross-court winner. In
baseball, quickness is measured by how fast can the athlete get a jump on the pitcher
when stealing a base or how quickly he can ―get out of the batters‘ box‖ after hitting the
ball. Therefore the ability to develop speed quickly is important.

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Most sports are all about explosive leg power. Quick powerful movements from one end
of the court or field to the other can make the difference in winning and losing. Strength
and power are often used and are interchangeable. Strength is the ability to lift a certain
amount of resistance through the full range of motion of the joint. Power is how fast one
can lift a specific weight through the total range of motion. Power is equal to speed. You
cannot have weak lower leg muscles and be powerful, but you can be strong and not
explosive. It all depends on how you train.
Having speed is very important to athletes competing in most sports and especially for
soccer players. Recovery from a stolen ball, breaking to a header, outrunning a defender
to the ball and breaking to an open space all depend on explosive takeoff speed. Speed
often defines a player and clearly distinguishes the exceptional player from the average
one.
In a medical and physical sense, speed is the muscles ability to generate power.
Maximum power and related maximum force are directly related to strength. Thus,
strength is a major component of speed. Speed also is dependent on the stretch shortening
cycle of the muscle and the ability of muscle to store elastic energy. This depends both on
flexibility and neuromusclar interaction. Thus, speed is dependent on strength, flexibility
and neuromuscular activation – all of which are trainable.
Speed training has evolved as medical science has isolated the essential elements of
speed. This training involves specific strength base development and explosive power or
plyometric training. Monitoring strength/speed progression allows for optimal
improvement.
Along with speed, having agility is a key asset among elite athletes. Agility is the ability
to change direction at high speed and under control. This allows for speed to become
more effective in attacking players. Agility is dependent on strength, flexibility and
neuromuscular reaction time – all of which are trainable as with explosive speed
development. Agility training is not ball dependent and can be trained off the field (i.e.
the school gym, etc.).
Speed and agility are integral components in soccer performance. Strength gains and
improvement in reaction time and in overall agility also help players avoid injury and
decreased injury severity. Having the agility to outrun or avoid a tackler or to better

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withstand a blow are added benefits to speed/agility training. As soccer physicians, it is
this dual benefit of improved performance and injury avoidance that is most exciting.
Twin and family studies show that individual differences in maximal oxygen uptake,
muscle strength, flexibility, and balance are affected by genetic factors. Some evidence is
found for specific genes coding for physical activity and fitness, but children and
adolescent studies are limited.
Physically active people differ in body composition from their sedentary age and height
peers. The former may be heavier than the later and greater weight in case of athletes can
be ascribed to a greater amount of muscle and skeletal mass and less amount of fat.
Sedentary individuals, particularly the females possess much more fat as compared to
their physically active counterparts. Physical activity, therefore, is known to improve the
physical fitness by decreasing the fat content as well as simultaneously increasing the
muscle content of the body.
3 Reasons Football Players must Strength Train there are:

Strength training is important for athletes across all sports—but for football players, it‘s a
prerequisite for safe competition. The physicality of football means that athletes,
especially young athletes, must be structurally strong and conditioned to compete safely.
If one of your players shows up under-prepared, his safety—and your team‘s chance of
success—is at risk.

The good news is that most football programs have adopted some system of strength and
conditioning to prepare their players. But if you‘re not currently training your players on
a periodized strength training program, designed by a certified strength coach for the
specific demands of football, you might not be doing enough to reduce your athletes‘ risk
of injury.

1. Muscle Mass + Durability

2. Explosiveness

3. Injury Prevention

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Muscle Mass + Durability: Training for hypertrophy (increased muscle size) not only
sets the stage for greater strength gains down the road, but it also helps ensure athletes are
prepared to withstand inevitable contact on the field. Increasing muscle mass through
strength training and proper nutrition allows athletes to reach a size that allows them to
compete safely, by improving their overall durability.

Training for hypertrophy requires performing a high volume of reps (6-12) at a

moderately high intensity (60-75% 1RM), a protocol that also carries a neuromuscular
benefit for football players. The increased time under tension during hypertrophy sets
helps solidify neural pathways between the brain and muscles, helping to ingrain proper
movement patterns—key for both athletic performance and safety. An athlete who has
developed neuromuscular control and strength through the full range of motion in a squat,
for example, is likely to both exert more force into the ground while sprinting and sustain
a lower risk of ACL injury than an athlete who has never strength trained.

Explosiveness: Good football players get off the line quicker, sprint faster, and make
more powerful blocks than less-explosive athletes. And an athlete‘s ability to be
explosive is directly related to their ability to express high levels of force—in other
words, athletes with greater strength levels have the potential to produce more
power(explosiveness) than weaker athletes.
This is where training on a properly periodized strength and conditioning program can
make the difference. How you organize your team‘s training affects how an athlete
develops different adaptations. Hypertrophy sets the stage for developing strength, for
example, and strength is a prerequisite for power. Developing the proper training
attributes in the correct order will allow athletes to maximize their ability to produce
force quickly, and translate that explosiveness to the field. And a good program will not
only develop these athletic qualities in the proper order, but also move from general
strength-building movements to more sport- or position-specific skills as the season
approached, to effect the best transfer from weight room to the field.
Injury Prevention: Research has shown that athletes who strength train on a periodized
training program, designed to strategically peak them for the demands of the football
season, reduce their risk of getting injured—this is the single most important benefit of

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strength training for football athletes! In addition to the neuromuscular benefits of
ingraining good movement patterns, strength training improves an athlete's resilience on
the field by strengthening muscles, bones, and connective tissues (like tendons and
ligaments). Athletes who strengthen the muscles needed to land safely after jumping up
for a catch, for example, and practice good landing mechanics in the weight room are less
likely to roll an ankle during a game.
The most commonly injured areas in football are the neck/head, knee, and ankle, and a
properly designed strength training program will include exercise designed to strengthen
and stabilize these areas. But in addition to contact injuries, football athletes have to
combat non-contact injuries (like hamstring tears), which can be just as devastating to an
athlete‘s health and the team‘s success. Paying attention to how your athletes move—
both on the field and in the weight room— can help you identify potential areas of
restricted mobility that can lead to soft tissue injury down the road. Players with
chronically tight hamstrings, for example, may have a greater risk of pulling a hamstring
during a max-effort sprint.
There are many benefits of speed and agility training. Some benefits of Speed and agility
training include an increase in athleticism, an increase in confidence and improvement of
fitness levels just to name a few. Speed and agility workouts compliment and improve
performance of all sports. The workouts improve acceleration, deceleration, foot speed,
quickness and change of direction. If you want to get better at a sport you must develop
your overall athleticism. Building an athletic foundation and motor skills is key and
gives you the base to build your sport-specific skills in a balanced way. For those kids
who play one sport it provides the opportunity to get faster, stronger and more skilled
without risking overuse injuries due to using the same motions.
Any athlete who has been injured will tell you injuries suck. By using proven and
studied methods like strengthening, stretching and body awareness exercises athletes will
learn how to avoid vulnerable positions and they will stay on the field or court longer and
avoid watching from the sidelines due to injury.
Speed and agility training increases the athlete‘s ability to move fast. This ability will
help the athlete raise their game. There is a common term that‘s used in sports ―Speed
Kills‖ and it is used for good reason. That is because the fast athlete usually dominates.

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Practicing speed and agility drills will give your athletes the jump over the competition.
These workouts are essential to developing athletic skills, reducing injury, and building
confidence. The great thing about speed and agility training is even if you are not an
athlete, your overall fitness levels will improve greatly when you add a speed and agility
regimen to your workouts.
Some examples of speed and agility drills are sprints, ladder drills and plyometrics. Be
sure to warm up and cool down properly before and after engaging in speed and agility
workouts.

STATEMENT OF THE STUDY

The study was titled as:

― A comparative study of selected physical fitness between National Sports

University football players and Dhanamanjuri University football players.

OBJECTIVES
1. To find out the significant difference on Explosive Leg Strength between the
football players of NSU and DM University

2. To find out the significant difference on Agility between the football players of
NSU and DMU.
3. To find out the significant difference on Speed between the football players of
NSU and DMU.
HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY:

On the basis of the literature reviewed, consultation with experts and researcher’s own
understanding it was hypothesized that:

1. It was hypothesized that there might be a significant difference in Physical Fitness

components between Football players of National Sports University and
Dhanamanjuri University
2. It was hypothesized that there might be a significant difference in Speed between
Football players of National Sports University and Dhanamanjuri University

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 3. It was hypothesized that there might be a significant difference in Agility
between Football players of National Sports University and Dhanamanjuri
University
4. It was hypothesized that there might be a significant difference in Explosive
strength between Football players of National Sports University and
Dhanamanjuri University

DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study was restricted to a few boundaries. They are as follows:

1. The study was delimited to the female subjects ranging between the ages of 18
to27years.

2. The study was delimited to the football players of NSU and DMU(Girls)

3. The study was further delimited with the 10 subjects from each University,
namely NSU players and DMU players.
4. The study was restricted to the following components:
Physical Fitness:

o Speed
o Agility
o Explosive leg Strength

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study had the following limitations:

1. The study was confined to the selected investigating method because of the
availability of the selected instruments required for these investigations.

2. Physical status and coaching background of subjects were not known.

3. No motivational technique was applied to motivate or discourage the subjects

while various measures were taken.

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 4. The players selected as subjects for this study differed in respect of their
nutritional status and social environment, socio economic background

DEFINITION AND EXPLAINATION OF THE TERMS

Football

Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score
a goal. Football, also called association football or soccer, game in which two teams of 11
players, using any part of their bodies except their hands and arms, try to maneuver the
ball into the opposing team’s goal. Only the goalkeeper is permitted to handle the ball
and may do so only within the penalty area surrounding the goal. The team that scores
more goals wins.

Speed

It is the maximum frequency at which it is possible for an individual to cover a distance

or to make a movement in a specific period of time. Speed is a measure of how quickly an
object's position changes and it is measured in meters per second.

The equation for speed is distance divided by time. Speed is a scalar quantity, meaning it has
magnitude but no direction. It is a measure of the rate of change of distance travelled by a
moving object. Speed can also be described as rapidity in moving, going, travelling,
proceeding, or performing

Agility

Is the ability of the human body to change direction in a specific movement, with the

greatest possible efficiency.

Agility is the quality or state of being agile, which means moving or

thinking quickly and easily. Agility can be physical or mental, and it involves adapting
to and

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exploiting the realities we see, rather than being predictive or plan-driven. Agility is also
a term used in some games to describe the character's ability to evade, attack, or perform
other actions in response to a stimulus.

Explosive leg power

It is the ability to produce a maximum amount of force in a very short period of

time.

It is also the ability to use strength at speed. For effective power muscle contraction
happens at high speed. In basketball, a player with good leg power can jump much higher
to get closer to the basket and this gives them a much better chance of scoring a basket.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of the problem is that the researcher expects some important
contributions through this study in the area of games and sports. It will be helpful to find
out the relationship and differences between the Physical Fitness components of NSU and
DMU Football players. It will be helpful to the coaches, Physical Educationists, and
administrators of various institutions and schools in selection and training process. It will
also motivate to players of NSU and DMU to develop Speed, strength and Explosive
power to achieve the higher level of performance in the games and sports of their interest.
It will make available a new field of research for future study.

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